A Perfect Friday Night Dinner for One
My wife, a clear-thinking woman in her mid 30's, somehow found herself going to see that new vampire movie on a recent Friday night. The one with the cute couple - British guy and American girl, all over the cover of People magazine. You know the movie I'm talking about.
When the wife goes out and I'm home alone with the two sleeping kids, I tend not to drink anything fancy. After all, one of the things that makes a wine great, is drinking with some one else and talking about it. But it can be a real pleasure to open a special bottle when I'm on my own, a wine that perhaps BrooklynLady doesn't enjoy as much as I do.
On this recent Friday night, as my wife watched cute and vicious teenage vampires do their thing, I warmed up the last of my French green lentil stew studded with baby white turnips, said turnips' tender greens, and bits of thick cut bacon. And I opened a bottle of wine that I was excited to hoard all for myself, the 2006 Jacques Puffeney Trousseau Cuvée les Bérangères, $30, Imported by Rosenthal Wine Merchant.
Actually, I opened it as BrooklynLady was getting dressed to go out, and I poured her a skimpy little glass. I asked her how she liked it as she put a clip in her hair - "Not so much," she said. "It tastes tomato-ey."
Perfect. This one is all mine, baby! And I don't get anything tomato-ey. I get a lot of warm dry soil, some sweet/tart red currant type of fruit, and something most definitely gamy. This is such a delicious wine, beautifully perfumed, perfectly balanced, but not at all polished - the tannins jut out a bit, the acid is the tiniest bit volatile, and there is a vivacious energy running through this wine. It was at its best after two hours in the decanter - intensely perfumed, but graceful and clear as a bell. It was perfect with my earthy lentil dish, providing a lot of lift.
It's things like this, this simple bowl of lentils with this vibrantly interesting wine, that remind me how staying home alone on a Friday night can delicious in its own way. Trust me - this wine is so much better than cute vampires.
6 comments:
Note to BG: Your first para was 2 sentences too long. (When a movie has the biggest opening of all-time, I think you have to rely on your readers are Up on this movie*...even if they're in a Bad Romance.) :)
I'm happy that my largest order of Jura wines ever (alright so that's 12 bottles) arrives from Crush tomorrow - mmmm, Macle CdJ!
*I couldn't get through the first book of this series (back when it came out) - so-slow-with-so-little-happening. The last vampire book that I really enjoyed was Robin McKinley's Sunshine.
hey Jack - jura by the case, watch out! best vampire movie i've seen in years, YEARS, is "Let the Right One In," i believe a 2008 film, Swedish. Original, engrossing, scary, fantastic.
I don't know what movie you are talking about, so you didn't write two sentences too much for me. And I am going to look for this wine France. It sounds exactly like something I would love!
BrooklynGuy Tracie B and I both love that wine and we drank the very same vintage a few weeks ago after Eric posted about the Jura. And I drank it again the other night in Houston with my cousins, who loved it.
I will say in defense of vampires that Tracie B and I are hopelessly hooked on the "True Blood" HBO show. I was skeptical but I cannot tell a lie: we can't get enough of it..
On another note, the word on the streets of the Lower East Side is that Guilhaume G is bringing in some zero SO2 Jura to this country... coming to a theater near you soon!
Happy Thanksgiving BrooklynFamily!
BG, total score on "Let the Right One In", great film. I hear that they are making an American remake, so they'll probably flub it, but you never know... As for the T movie, what's to dislike about the Vampire-movie-as-Christian-abstinence-parable genre? Oh wait, I've answered my own question.
I have to say I've never admired the first sentence on blog post more than this one's.
(And the characters in my comment word verification are s-u-c-k-e-d... nice touch!)
Post a Comment